The MediaReady FlyBoy feels more like a prototype than a finished product. It needs a lot of interface improvements, and the screen and recording quality could be a lot better. The transcoding software isn't quite ready for prime time either.

Big names like Creative and Archos continue to dominate the portable media player market, but smaller companies are still putting out products that are worthy of at least some attention. The MediaReady FlyBoy ($349 list) from Video Without Boundaries is just such an entry. Unfortunately, its subpar screen, rough interface, and unimpressive video-recording quality make it hard to recommend, despite its low price.

The FlyBoy has a 3.5-inch color LCD and a 20GB hard drive housed in a white plastic 5- by 3- by 0.9-inch shell. Weighing 7.8 ounces, the device is fairly beefy, but we found that it fit fairly well in our back pocket. It has two built-in speakers and a microphone. All the controls are along the top, including Power, Back, Play/Pause, and two cursor/skip rocker buttons. A rubber flap next to the buttons conceals an SD Card slot for transferring files from a camera or other device to the internal hard drive. On the left side of the device, another flap covers A/V in and out jacks, a USB 2.0 port, and a power jack. The A/V output doubles as the headphone jack, which we found somewhat kludgy since you have to open the flap to plug in the headphones, causing it to stick out oddly.

The FlyBoy is USB Mass Storagecompliant and runs on Linux, but it doesn't sync with Windows Media Player or come with media-management software. Simply connect the player and then select Link from the main menu. The interface has a lot of rough edges (note the misspelled word Dissconnect when you unplug the USB cable), and navigation is a little oddyou use the "<< >>" buttons to navigate folders (but you won't see any files), and you use the "< >" buttons to navigate files (but you won't see any folders). And some menus are accessible only by hitting the power button briefly. Once we got our media onto the FlyBoy, we found the interface very slow, and characters in filenames are not vertically aligned properly (lowercase p, for example). Filesparticularly videoalso take quite a bit of time to load. In addition, file lengths are shown as hours:minutes and are rounded up, so a 2-minute 27-second song is represented as 00:03.

Audio files (MP3 and RealMedia only) play in an onboard version of RealOne Player, which displays only the artist and track name and a progress bar (no timers). You access the repeat, file-deletion, and file-renaming modes via the power button; selecting Rename brings up a QWERTY keyboard. There's no shuffle function. Oddly, when a file is done playing, the player switches back to file-browsing mode momentarily, automatically selects the next file, and takes you back to the RealOne Player window (the same happens if you push the track-skip button). And you can't skip tracks or fast-forward/rewind while a song is paused.

Using the included earbuds, we found bass response anemic and the highs somewhat suppressed, though the midrange was strong and reasonably clear. Before each track began playing, we noticed a high-pitched whine, but once audio started playing, this was only occasionally present. The built-in speakers aren't loud enough to watch movies or listen to recordings comfortably, even with the volume all the way up.

In JPEG photo-viewing mode, thumbnails slowly appear, six to a page; you can't browse by file name, so you have to page through the thumbnails. You can clearly see each individual pixel on the FlyBoy's 320-by-240pixel screen, even from a distance. Our photos looked jagged, with a lot of artifacts and very inaccurate color, though they looked fine on our TV monitor. The LCD's viewing angle is quite limited, though you can zoom up to 3X and pan. You can delete photos and specify slide-show settings, though despite the 2-second setting we selected, slides took about 5 or 6 seconds to change.

We transcoded a widescreen trailer to MPEG-4 format using the bundled software (which offers very few output and conversion options), and it became horizontally squished when we played it on the FlyBoy's 4:3 screen. Text is difficult to read, video is slightly jumpy, audio was often slightly out of sync, and colors were a bit off, despite our having used the highest-quality settings in the transcoding software. The video looked only slightly better on our TV monitor. We also had no luck playing our own MPEG-4 test files on the device without converting them via the software. The battery is rated for 2 or 3 hours of video playback, depending on whether you look at the manual or the Web site; we measured 2 hours 38 minutes on our rundown test.

Recording video is fairly easy, though before it starts, the device checks for free space, which can take up to about 20 seconds. You can record continuously or in blocks of half-hour increments up to 3 hours. While we like that it preserves the wide-screen aspect ratio for movies, the recording quality when we played the video back out through our TV monitor was jumpy and the audio was slightly out of sync. Compression artifacts were very noticeable in high-action sequences, like the dance scenes in Moulin Rouge, but colors were acceptable. We did, however, note a high-pitched whine in the background. Voice recordings in WAV format sound acceptable, though the 8-kHz sample rate isn't really suitable for capturing live music.

The FlyBoy comes with a charger, an infrared remote, and a very cool black-and-white leather case that flips open and has holes for the screen, ports, and speakers. The remote is very handy and is actually far better for controlling the device than the onboard buttons. With the device in the case, however, the port cover/flap sticks out awkwardly, making us wish the device had an uncovered headphone jack.

The MediaReady FlyBoy we tested seemed more like a prototype than a final product; we double-checked to make sure it was indeed a shipping version. The dismal screen, extremely clunky interface, and subpar AV quality disappointed us despite the reasonable price. We hope for a more polished version of this device from the company in the future.

Automatic Renewal Program: Your subscription will continue without interruption for as long as you wish, unless
you instruct us otherwise. Your subscription will automatically renew at the end of the term unless you authorize
cancellation. Each year, you'll receive a notice and you authorize that your credit/debit card will be charged the
annual subscription rate(s). You may cancel at any time during your subscription and receive a full refund on all
unsent issues. If your credit/debit card or other billing method can not be charged, we will bill you directly instead. Contact Customer Service